“No one can confidently say that he will still be living tomorrow.”  ~ Euripides

I rarely share pieces of my personal life in these posts. But today I feel compelled to share this one because I feel it is very timely in light of all that is going on in our world.

Lately, over the course of the last few weeks I have been overwhelmed by the amount of turmoil, chaos, and angst, we seem to be living amongst. Protests, strikes, layoffs, government shut-downs, and a chaotic political environment that seems to be bordering on the absurd.

But very recently, as a matter of fact, within the last few days I received what I refer to as life’s 4′ X 4′ pick-up. I describe a life 4′ x 4′ pick-up when life smacks you in the side of the head with a 4′ x 4′ and then you have to pick yourself up because you’ve just been hit with a huge dose of reality. Otherwise known as a wake-up call!

A very dear Uncle, fairly close in age to me, who was really more like a brother, passed away. As I watched him struggling to hang on the last few days, I was slapped back into the reality that we are all here for a very short period of time and that sometimes what we believe is so very important to us at times, isn’t very important at all in the grand scheme of things.

Maya Angelou once said, “If we lose love and self respect for each other, this is how we finally die.” It is hard to watch the news or pay attention to what is going on in our world and not think that we have totally lost love and self respect for each other. And in that way, we seem to die just a little bit more everyday as a society.

So as I sit here writing this blog, I am reflecting on a few questions that I thought I would share with you all that I am asking myself this very evening:

1. Am I really paying attention to the things and the people I value most, or am I distracting myself and getting wrapped up in the chaos and negativity of the world?
2. Am I spending as much time with the people I love and care about, or am I taking them and the time I have left on this earth for granted?
3. If today was my last day on earth, would I be proud of what I have accomplished and the relationships I have in my life?

Sometimes, I think we believe that we will live forever, until someone vey dear to us passes or we get some bad news about our health, or some unfortunate incident changes the course of our lives forever.

In the movie Shawshank Redemption, Red, played by Morgan Freeman has a quote I have never forgotten. He says, “Get busy livin’, or get busy dyin’.”

That said, I never want to be a person, who gets so wrapped up in all the chaos and garbage going on around me that I lose sight of what it is to really live a happy, productive, joyful, love-filled, life. I don’t want to be a person who needs some tragedy or the death of someone close to me to remember that life is short and that everyday is a gift.

I firmly believe that we are 100% responsible for the results we are creating in our lives. I believe we have the power to create an extraordinary life based on the decisions we make everyday to make sure we are “getting busy livin’.”

I don’t know if this post impacted you to think differently about your life, I hope it did. I hope that maybe in some small way, you might make one small shift in the way you’re seeing your neighbor, your partner, spouse, kid, colleague, friend, in a more loving and respectful way. Maybe, it will  remind you to value and appreciate those around just a bit more or maybe even a lot more!

Hopefully, until next time…